Uncategorized

Learning Chinese characters may seem intimidating, but I have a secret technique! The key is to learn the WAY to learn Chinese Characters. I know that may sound complicated…but it’s really not! Consider this…

There are two main components to learning any language: Figuring out what to do, and then doing it! Doing it takes discipline, but it truly can be done by just about anyone. Most people that quit learning a language do so because they can’t figure out what to do. The two main difficulties people encounter when learning the Chinese language are mastering the tonesand the characters. This is why the dropout rate in colleges for Mandarin as a foreign language is 4x higher than that of Spanish or French.

So let’s break it down…

For tones, start by listening and mimicking audio recordings of native speakers. This will put you way ahead of the game. Trying to go from pinyin and tone charts to correct pronunciation is a surefire way to fail.

You can’t just look at a tone chart and think you can now pronounce tones correctly.

People often think in terms of these lines and try to produce sound, rather than listening and repeating the tones. That creates a big disconnect between what they think they are saying and what they are actually saying. If you’re thinking of these “tone lines” instead of listening to actual native speaker tones, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Instead, you have to listen! Master the sounds first, then learn how to write those sounds. That applies to pinyin, bopomofo AND characters!

The fact that you are here on ChinesePod is fabulous. The authentic, conversational audio is great, but, you still have to make use of it! Owning spinach won’t bring you any health benefits; eating it will. You can make use of ChinesePod’s pronunciation tools and be sure to check out the Say it Right series!

Source: archchinese.com

That brings us to what I really want to talk about: Characters. Characters are complex enough that if you don’t understand how they work, you will probably fail. But, if you dounderstand how they work, you can master them. According to memory experts, like Dr. Kenneth L. Higbee, the number one rule for effective memorization is that you understand. Understand what? Understand the thing you are trying to learn. When I write, I hate repetition. But, notice that a certain word has popped up several times in this paragraph? Understand. Understand how characters actually work. That is the key.

You can’t just break them down into whatever parts you want. Well, you can, but you’re creating more pain and suffering for yourself. If you break 愿 yuàn “to be willing” into 厂 factory + 白 white + 小 small + 心 heart, you’ll miss the fact that it’s really 原 yuán + 心 heart/feeling! Trying to remember parts as unrelated as “factory,” “white,” “small” and “heart” while trying to tie them to the meaning “to be willing” and the sound yuàn is just a lot of extra work! As this example shows, characters are made up of parts that express sound and meaning.

Source: outlier-linguistics.com

It is understanding how they express sound and meaning that allows for learning with less mental effort. Understanding how characters express sound and meaning gives us clues. Clues that allow us to use sound and meaning to pluck our memory strings and remember how to write. It also allows us to make intelligent guesses about characters we haven’t even learned yet.

So…do you want to know how characters really work?

Most characters are made up of components. These components can have different functions, so we call them “functional components.” The three main types of functional components are form components, meaning components, and sound components. Want to know more? There’s plenty more here.

Source: outlier-linguistics.com

If you learn using functional components, you can reap benefits such as clearing up confusion caused by similar-looking components, such as 艮 vs. 良, being able to make intelligent predictions about the sounds and meanings of characters you haven’t even learned yet or improve your ability to recall a character’s form similar to a computer input method. Read on!

The problem is, you can’t tell with any certainty how a modern character works just by looking at it. That’s why we made the Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters, which is an add-on for Pleco. Our dictionary solves the “understanding” problem. Now you just have to put in the time to learn.

Sichuan cuisine, is also known or spelled as Szechwan cuisine, or Szechuan cuisine (/ˈsɛʃwɒn/ or /ˈsɛtʃwɒn/) and it is a style of Chinese cuisine originating from Sichuan Province. We will use the contemporary spelling: Sichuan

If Cantonese style cooking is the most popular in the United States, Sichuan is the most popular in China. As noted it originated from the Southwestern region of China and is known for deep and rich flavors, especially the taste of Sichuan pepper. In other words: Spicy which is rare in China’s other regional cuisines.

But Sichuan cuisine is not only spicy, it tends to be hot.

Source: www.heatculinary.com

Perhaps one of the most remarkable things about the Sichuan philosophy in food is its wide diversity. If you named any number of traditional Sichuan dishes, most of them would be completely different from each other, both in taste and cooking method. There is a saying (whose cleverness unfortunately doesn’t translate all that well to English, although its meaning is felt) ‘One dish with one flavor, with one hundred dishes come hundred flavors.‘

As noted, Sichuan food is most well-known for its hot and spicy flavors, though it may sport sweet and sour flavors too.

And the Sichuan palate recognizes several important flavors which are referred to as “The Five Fragrances”

These are must-have seasonings that bring out the intense flavors the dishes are renowned for. Without them you simply have spicy food. They are like the Trinity in cajun cooking.

Balancing the Five Fragrances with the traditional seasonings (especially the lip numbing Sichuan Pepper) is pretty much the heart and soul of Sichuan Cuisine, and as noted helps produce a prodigious variety of flavors and dishes.

Cooking Methods

Source: www.chinadiscovery.com

Sichuan cuisine favors a fast and furious approach to the actual cooking. It is not a tradition that features much fermentation, chemical methods of cooking like Ceviche, or multistep processes like cheese making or the like. Instead, Sichuan chef’s prefer fast cooking methods like stir-frying, steaming, braising, baking.

The most common is fast-frying.

Finally, the Sichuan chef is often measured against their preparations of the most famous traditional Sichuan dishes.

Here is a great list of some of the fiery traditional fare.

Source: www.chinasichuanfood.com

‘Pockmarked Granny’ Bean Curd (Mapo Tofu)

Mapo (/maa-por/) tofu is bean curd served in a chili-and-bean-based sauce — usually a thin, oily, and bright red suspension — and often topped with minced meat; It is often seasoned with water chestnuts, onions, other vegetables, or wood ear fungus.

The taste of mapo tofu is charitably described as ‘numbing,’ Its super hot by tradition, fresh, tender and soft, aromatic and flaky.

Mapo tofu is not exclusive to Sichuan but this dish is. It is also one of the most exported dishes of the Chinese diaspora.

Source: kirbiecravings.com/kung-pao-chicken/

Spicy Diced Chicken (Kung Pao Chicken)

Kung Pao Chicken is actually its Cantonese name, and read as Gongbao Jiding (宫保鸡丁 /gong-baow jee-ding/ ‘Palace-Protected Chicken Cubes’) in Mandarin. But it is Sichuan in origin.

The dish is prepared by frying diced chicken and dry red pepper with golden peanuts. Spicy diced chicken is more popular among Westerners than its counterpart mapo tofu.

Like Cajun or Thai spice afficianados, the Sichuan chefs brag that it is the more popular of the two because it is usually less spicy, or not at all, when served abroad and outside Sichuan province—because Fiery, lip numbing spice and all.

Source: www.thedrinksbusiness.com

Fuqi Fei Pian (‘Husband and Wife Lung Slices’)

Fuqi Fei Pian, the brainchild of Guo Zhaohua, is made of thinly sliced beef (or bovine lung or tongue) seasoned with chili oil.

Like the name suggests, there is a story behind this famous Sichuan dish—one far less grisly than it would suggest.

Zhaohua and his wife sold their vinegar-ized beef slices for a living from a street cart. As their beef slices were aromatic and delicious, They became one of the most popular food items in the city. In honor of the couple, patrons coined the name — Husband and Wife Lung Slices.

Source: www.thefooddictator.com

Sichuan Hot Pot

Sichuan hotpot, like most of the cuisine in this humid and populous province, is numbingly spicy. The broth is flavored with chili peppers and other strong-tasting herbs and spices.

Dandan noodles is yet another quintessential Sichuan dish that has received international attention and hence may come in different versions.

Unlike the usually watered down ones outside Sichuan, dandan noodles in Sichuan province embody a combustion of flavors — savoury, nutty, spicy, and smoky. The noodles are drenched in chili oil with vegetables, Sichuan pepper, and minced pork served on top.

Ganbian Sijidou (Dry Stir Fried Green Beans)

There has been a misconception about this dish being oily and heavy. However, when done right in Sichuan province, the stir-fried green beans are supposed to be light and crunchy. Also known as snap beans or string beans, the beans are prepared with the cooking technique “dry-frying” where lesser oil is needed and a longer frying time required. This dehydrates the beans, creating a crispy outer layer.

Sichuan Cuisine is fairly easy to understand and recognize. Strong flavors, generally very fiery. Part of the dining experience is the aromas (or the five fragrances) and the use of a pepper that literally makes your lips and mouth go numb.

In our next installment we will be discussing what is seen as the most refined and artistic of the Great Cuisines of China. Jiangsu Cuisine

For anyone studying the Chinese language, who has been to China or indeed has any interest in China or the Chinese language, pinyin is something that you will definitely come across. It is vital to language learning for anyone who is not a native Chinese speaker, and a life-saver for those travelling to China.

So what exactly is Chinese Pinyin? Where did it come from, and how do you go about alphabetizing an entire language that is based purely on symbols?

What is Chinese Pinyin?

Chinese Pinyin, or Hanyu Pinyin (汉语拼音), is the official romanization of Mandarin Chinese, which is usually written using characters only. It is used throughout the Chinese mainland and is often used also as a tool to teach Standard Mandarin Chinese. It describes the sounds of Chinese characters using the Latin Alphabet, and also includes a tone marker (one of four) making characters easy to read and learn. It is also used when inputting Chinese on a keyboard such as on a phone or laptop.

After multiple tries by various people over many years of trying to create a standard romanized system for Mandarin Chinese, Chinese Pinyin was first developed in the 1950s and published by the Chinese government as the official standardization in 1958.

Zhou Youguang, Father of Chinese Pinyin

Surprisingly not widely known in China, Zhou Youguang, otherwise known as the Father of Pinyin, is the brains behind the creation of Chinese Pinyin and the standardization of Mandarin Chinese. A feat which otherwise had never before been truly completed.

Zhou Yougang was the son of a Chinese official. He comes from Changzhou which lies in the East of China but moved to Shanghai for university where he graduated with a major in Economics in 1927.

He then moved to Chongqing in 1937 at the start of the second Sino-Japanese war. Eventually, he moved to New York where he worked as a banker.

Source: http://people.chinesecio.com

He decided to return to China to help rebuild the country after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and moved to Shanghai to work as an economics professor in 1955. It was then that China’s Ministry of Education created a Committee for the Reform of the Chinese Written Language, and began the big project of standardization and the creation of Chinese pinyin.

From this, Zhou Enlai enlisted Zhou Youguang, somebody who had always shown great interest and ability in languages and linguistics, as the person who would take on this mammoth task.

Zhou Youguang originally protested, stating that he was nothing more than an amature in the field, but these protests were to no avail. He began to work on the creation of the new romanization system that would become the new standard Chinese Pinyin.

Apart from managing to standardize an entire alphabet – a surprisingly difficult task taking over 3 years to complete, despite it just being 26 letters to deal with, the creation of the Chinese Pinyin system was revolutionary for Chinese people throughout the Middle Kingdom. Before the Chinese Pinyin system existed, 85% of Chinese people could not read and were labelled as illiterate. Now, almost all Chinese people can read.

Source: reddit.com/

Zhou Youguang, the father of Pinyin, died in Beijing on Saturday January 14th 2017, a day after his birthday, at the age of 111.

In order to get the most out of visiting a Chinese family, the first thing you want to do is bring a digital translator. Next, observe the local customs, and then prepare some good questions to ask. You should then have a valuable inter-cultural encounter, providing a deeper insight into Chinese culture and local life.

When entering the house you should..

Offer your gifts, which will probably be taken away or placed on a table unopened, as it is the Chinese custom. Fruit is very popular, although confectionery or souvenir products from your country would also be welcomed.

Source: www.thechineseculturecorner

Greet all members of the household (start with the seniors, if possible, then proceed down the social scale; children would normally be expected to greet you rather than the other way round), or as many as you can see from the door. A simple hello in English, or ‘’Ni hao’’ would suffice.

Take your shoes off and change them for a pair a pair of slippers that is waiting for you by the door.

Once inside the house…

Once you are inside the house you will usually be asked to sit down. If you have any belongings such as a bag or coat that you wish to take off they will usually be given a seat too. Placing bags on the floor is a huge no – no (the floor is considered unclean, though it seems fine from a Western perspective) and coat racks are uncommon in China.

Source: www.thoughco

You will then be offered something to eat and drink. Plain hot water is widely popular, especially in poorer households, where all water is boiled. The alternative is usually Chinese tea of some sort. The first food offered will most likely be fruit, with peanuts and candy if it’s a festive time of the year. Accept the food/drink, or put them down on a table in front of you if you don’t want to have them immediately.

Then the conversation begins… Your host will try to keep you entertained and ask you a few questions first. Then it is your chance to reciprocate.

I am Grace Wong, and I’m thrilled to be with you here on ChinesePod! I work mostly in the customer service area, but recently several people have suggested I take a more active role and even try to get in front of the camera. So, I have decided to get out front and center so that I can become more involved with ChinesePod. I’m so excited!

I’ve always enjoyed learning online with CPod and I can’t wait to get know all of you in the ChinesePod community better. One of my new responsibilities as Community Manager will be to help host and setup MeetUps around the globe. We will have our first one in North Florida and then will be rolling them out in other areas throughout the year. Feel free to email me directly at Grace@chinesepod.com or message me in the forum if you would like to have one in your area.

So, let me tell you a little about me. I was born in America, but my mother’s parents are from Hunan and Tainan. My dad is from West Virginia. My mom fell in love with my Dad and he whisked her away to American and then came me!

I was born in the USA but my heart is in China! My favorite thing to do there is eat! I love food – It’s a big motivator for me. One time my godmother bribed me with 粽子zòngzi to get me to let her pull my tooth out!

Hmmm.. looking back at my childhood the most vibrant memories I have involve piano and art – and FOOD!

I fought against the piano. I have many not-so-happy-memories of the piano with me throwing a fit on the piano bench, tears on the keys and the book thrown on the floor. Thankfully my parents saw my love of art and allowed me to quit the tortuous piano lessons. It wasn’t expected of a Chinese mother to support her daughter’s pursuit of art, especially over the piano. I was fortunate to have been heard and encouraged.

Anywho…

Fast forward many years later, I went to college and majored in Fine Arts and minored in Chinese and Photography. Chinese has always been a part of my life, but it wasn’t until college that I fell in love with it. Chinese was so obtainable and I love being around people from China or who chose to learn this language. I’ve been committed to the language ever since. Check out this video of the Five W Questions in Chinese!

I have spent years teaching Chinese to children and adults alike. My first opportunity teaching the language was with adopted children from China. I was so impressed how their parents made it a priority for these kids to learn to speak their native tongue. Then I created crash courses for companies which set up offices in Asia or had business in China.

I enjoyed teaching children and adults alike. As an elementary school teacher, I established the Chinese program at my school! It’s amazing to see the drive these young children have to pursue this language on their own. I attacked Chinese much as I did the piano when I was a child – it wasn’t an activity I was jumping up and down to do. I can’t quite pinpoint what it was that I didn’t enjoy about it, however now that I’m all grown up, I realize I want to demystify Chinese and show everyone what an accessible language this is!

All of my mom’s family are still in Asia. While I wish we were closer, it has given me the opportunity to travel there often to visit. What a wonderful culture, steeped in tradition and history!

My family in Asia is so precious to me and I consider it my second home. I always cry as I leave my family there and wish I could stay longer.

I have traveled to the far east annually throughout my adult life and every time I go, I unlock new mysteries. I am excited about many more trips to come and the new cultural experiences to be had.

I can’t wait to do our ChinesePod meetups all around the world with subscribers like you!

Thanks for being part of the ChinesePod Community! I look forward to hearing from you!

What is ChinesePod?

ChinesePod is the longest-running Mandarin Learning tool. With over 4,000 audio and video lessons at six different skill levels there is something to study for everyone. Read our blog for useful tips & tricks, as well as cultural insights that’ll enrich your understanding of the Mandarin language.